Dark Side of the Ring 4x10

1. Here are Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty-

2. 'The Rockers'!

3. We're the best at doing whatever it takes to win.

4. In the 1980s,

5. Marty Jannetty and Shawn Michaels formed one of

6. the greatest tag teams of the WWF's Golden Era...

7. 'The Rockers.'

8. We're comin' at ya.

9. With their high-flying moves and glam rock style,

10. they became heartthrobs and wrestling superstars.

11. An arena with 15 to 20,000 screaming people.

12. You don't even get that kind of high from drugs.

13. They've got that charisma that people love.

14. And the outfits, and the hair, and the smile.

15. After a shocking betrayal,

16. only Shawn would ascend to the dizzying

17. heights of fame that Marty had always craved.

18. Shawn Michaels, ladies and gentlemen!

19. Marty just let him walk all over him and

20. just steal away his life.

21. Driven by an insatiable desire to reclaim

22. his former success, Marty spirals down

23. a destructive path of self-sabotage.

24. I'd get in a lot of trouble for

25. my outside of the ring antics.

26. He takes everything to the extreme.

27. It's all about getting that reaction.

28. The problem is you get hooked onto that.

29. Sometimes Marty is just his own worst enemy.

30. Burdened with health issues, Marty ignites a storm of

31. controversy that threatens to consume his legacy,

32. bringing him face to face with a secret that has

33. haunted him for over 50 years.

34. I mean, you said a lot of crazy things,

35. so we can only hope that there's no truth to any of it.

36. Trying to decipher fact from fiction

37. is part of the game too.

38. I mean, it could've.

39. How you doing, brother?

40. Good to see you, man.

41. Damn, how many cameras we have, 48 today?

42. I am MJ in the house,

43. otherwise known as Marty Jannetty.

44. One of 'The Rockers' from back in the day.

45. Jannetty going all the way up.

46. Bombs away!

47. This morning was rough.

48. It's a nerve, I can touch it right now.

49. Right, right...

50. right there is the worst point.

51. Man, I can't wait til it heals, you know, all the way,

52. so we can cut it open and put a joint back in.

53. He's a very charismatic, very charming individual.

54. My name is Al Snow, former WWE superstar.

55. What does everybody want?

56. I've been a professional wrestler for,

57. going on 41 years, and at one time I was Marty Jannetty's

58. partner in 'The New Rockers.'

59. Ready for tag team action.

60. And on that run, that was where Marty hurt his ankle.

61. Really severely rolled it.

62. And Marty Jannetty collapsing into the rope.

63. Over the years it just got progressively worse and worse.

64. Yeah.

65. I've known Marty Jannetty since, really,

66. high school is where we played football together,

67. and, just were in the same class.

68. I'm Lee McCluskey.

69. I'm an orthopaedic surgeon, uh,

70. do mostly foot and ankle work.

71. Marty was uh, he was a fantastic athlete,

72. first of all.

73. You know, wrestling, of course.

74. In high school he had a lot of interaction with

75. my brothers, playing ball and so forth.

76. I'm George McCluskey and I'm a shoulder and

77. elbow surgeon in Columbus, Georgia.

78. Most people have one problem in one shoulder,

79. or one problem in one foot or ankle,

80. but he's got about six or seven things.

81. MJ's up in the house!

82. Twelve...

83. On a good day.

84. Your body can only take so many slams, you know?

85. And uh, I took quite a few.

86. The ankles were bound to go and

87. we're working on those now.

88. Woah!

89. I had joint replacement in the right ankle,

90. reconstructive on the left.

91. Both shoulders are kind of torn up.

92. back drop!

93. I remember him as being a

94. very aggressive football player.

95. He probably took sports more seriously than he did school.

96. A little on the wild side.

97. I remember, we were in the chemistry lab doing some

98. experiments and he said, "Whatever you guys do now,

99. do not put the blue chemicals in with the

100. orange chemicals." And he didn't say why.

101. And I thought, well, I'd like to know why.

102. Well, I took the two chemicals and

103. mixed them together, and wham!

104. One girl, she got blown back a few feet.

105. The window that was behind me blew out,

106. and I got stuff on me from the explosion.

107. It was all over school.

108. Everybody's like, "Man, Jannetty blew up the lab.

109. Did you hear about Jannetty blew up the lab?"

110. I don't think anybody else ever tried to

111. mix the blue and orange.

112. Um, you can't believe

113. 99% of what Marty's

114. you know, talkin' about.

115. My name is Karen Walker and

116. I've known Marty for upwards of 40 years.

117. He comes up with some of the strangest things, you know?

118. You know, Marty just walks up and talks to ya,

119. it's probably all a big story that he's making up

120. as he goes along.

121. Actually I was 13 and 12

122. I'd come over and the hookers would give me

123. freebies because they thought I was cute.

124. Donald Trump was coming towards me smiling,

125. "How you doing, Marty?

126. You always got a pretty girl on your arms."

127. I got talked into going to a sex addiction clinic and

128. I ended up dating my councillor.

129. He puts on a show for every single person

130. he comes in contact to.

131. So if you don't know him intimately,

132. you don't know the gentle side, you know, the kind side.

133. The side that gets his feelings hurt.

134. You know growing up, my mom and dad

135. had a lot of issues with each other,

136. and we, we struggled a lot.

137. My dad would never let my my mom beat,

138. beat on me.

139. She would always have to wait until he went to work.

140. So I would hide it from him so that

141. they wouldn't get in a fight.

142. It was a tough upbringing.

143. I mean, you know, he's got some bad stories.

144. My name is "Mean" Mike Moran and I wrestled for WCW

145. as one half of the Disorderly Conduct,

146. and I also wrestled for 20 plus years as

147. one half of the Texas Hangmen.

148. I met Marty in 1984.

149. It was both our first territories,

150. our first opportunities, and here we are

151. 39 years later still friends.

152. Marty's mom was very abusive.

153. His dad he loved to death,

154. but his dad wasn't always there.

155. I think that, honestly,

156. athletics got him out of there.

157. I mean he was a good athlete, thankfully.

158. And he punched his ticket and got to see the world and

159. get the hell out of Columbus.

160. Determined to channel his natural athleticism into a

161. pro-wrestling career,

162. Marty picks up the trade from

163. veteran Jerry Oates before making his debut in 1983

164. in Mid-South.

165. A great maneuver by Marty Oates.

166. After jumping to Central States Wrestling

167. in Kansas City,

168. Marty's invited to mentor another young wrestler.

169. So I'm looking for him in the dressing room.

170. I don't know who I'm looking for.

171. I went up to this one guy 'cause he looked

172. shy and quiet, kind of standoffish,

173. and he was sort of nerdy.

174. You know he had his blue jeans pulled up, you know,

175. up under his damn chest with a big belt buckle.

176. Short hair.

177. I felt comfortable to go ask, "Hey man, do you know who,

178. is Shawn Michaels around here?

179. Shawn Michaels? Do you know Shawn Michaels?"

180. "Oh I'm Shawn Michaels."

181. And I'm thinking, I'm supposed to

182. hang out with him and show him around.

183. It's gonna take some work.

184. You know from there,

185. it was probably two weeks later, they said

186. "You guys get together for a tag match."

187. We went out there, and uh, it was like magic.

188. It was like telepathy.

189. We already knew what we were thinking.

190. Remember he tapped me, he goes,

191. "Did you feel something there?"

192. Yeah that's, that was different.

193. The Midnight Rockers!

194. Those guys were incredible.

195. My name is Pat Tanaka.

196. I've wrestled for many decades,

197. and I guess people would know me best because

198. I've wrestled The Rockers for many, many years.

199. Look out!

200. Marty and Shawn would run out,

201. and all you heard was just loud,

202. high pitched screams of girls going crazy.

203. Marty just seemed like he was out there having fun,

204. and just doing what he knew how to do.

205. I'm Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake,

206. WWE Hall of Famer.

207. Welcome to the barber shop, ladies and gentlemen!

208. And I am Missy Beefcake, also known as "The Delish."

209. Marty had this thing where you just,

210. no matter where he was in the ring,

211. you couldn't take your eyes off of him.

212. He'd go here or there and he just, yeah-

213. Made you wanna look and, you know, maybe even, like,

214. undress him with your eyes and wonder, like

215. what else was going on in that, you know,

216. little outfit he was wearing.

217. I mean, I was in heaven, having all these

218. girls around for several states.

219. I got into, like, middle school when

220. I got a crush on Kerry Von Erich, you know?

221. And I went to see Kerry Von Erich one night and

222. Marty was there, and I saw him and

223. I was like, "Oh my God, that's a Greek god.

224. I'm gonna go home and throw rocks at my boyfriend."

225. Yeah, and he was looking at me the same way.

226. So we ended up getting together that night.

227. I'm his forever wifey by the way.

228. Every time I went to St. Louis I would see her.

229. We hit it off and uh...

230. Yeah, well for St. Louis, you know.

231. From 15 feet above us!

232. Marty and Shawn have a stellar run in the AWA,

233. culminating in a violent match that gets

234. the attention of Vince McMahon.

235. Dropping 'Midnight' from their name,

236. 'The Rockers' are signed to the WWF.

237. And I think this is well known through

238. the wrestling world what happened.

239. Our first, our first day in there-

240. It was common for all the wrestlers to go out, party,

241. you know, rumble around.

242. But to the extent that Marty and Shawn would go,

243. it was ridiculous.

244. We had, we had great times.

245. I mean we had...

246. yeah, great times, but you know,

247. that's the only way I can say it

248. without getting myself in trouble.

249. To celebrate their first night in the company,

250. Marty and Shawn join their new colleagues at a bar,

251. but their notorious reputation for partying

252. proceeds them.

253. Jimmy Jack Funk comes up,

254. "Hey, I heard you guys are partiers, huh?

255. Ya'll supposed to be some big partiers."

256. He goes, "Yeah, let me see you do this."

257. He takes a glass.

258. He bit the glass.

259. And Shawn was like, "Well, I can't do that

260. but I can do this." And he took a wine glass,

261. "Ch!", breaks it over his head.

262. And then uh, they ended up throwing some shot glasses

263. I believe, over the bar at the mirror.

264. They would fight.

265. They would bleed everywhere.

266. I mean like, just like they were in a wrestling ring.

267. Throw each other around and stuff.

268. Just get so, so messed up.

269. And that's why they were booted out,

270. 'cause they were just too wild.

271. It was just kind of one day and out,

272. on this, one day and done for WW...

273. now what do we do?

274. After only one week in the WWF,

275. Marty Jannetty and Shawn Michaels are fired

276. for their wild and out of control antics.

277. And uh, I mean, what kind of luck, you know,

278. GAT luck that I talk about.

279. I have not explained GAT yet have I?

280. And I'm gonna bring it up as many times as I can

281. because it's a, it's a fact, and it exists.

282. MJ's up in this house!

283. We are gathered here today in the Holy Spirit of GAT.

284. Just stands for: God's Amusement Toy.

285. When God gets a little bored with

286. his natural disasters...

287. where's Jannetty?

288. And I'll be just strutting down the street minding

289. my own business, and then all of a sudden...

290. He throws a couple bolts of lightning on me.

291. And he just sits there and giggles.

292. GAT, back at GAT again.

293. GAT because he can't accept responsibility,

294. so it's gotta be somebody's fault, so it must be

295. God who's always turning the tables on him.

296. And it's like, no, it's you.

297. I do believe Marty has had some bad luck,

298. no doubt about it.

299. But I also believe, and I've told Marty this,

300. that a lot of the decisions you've made have caused

301. the problems you have, and

302. you need to stop blaming GAT.

303. His worst quality is Marty is Marty's own worst enemy.

304. Gone from the WWF, Marty and Shawn sign with

305. a much smaller promotion, Continental Wrestling...

306. Well you know in our short career we've beat 'em all.

307. where they struggle to make ends meet.

308. But after a year of impressing the crowds,

309. they once again attract the attention of Vince McMahon,

310. leading to a second chance with the company.

311. Well if you've got talent, you get many chances,

312. in any sport.

313. The Rockers!

314. They just kept moving up and up and up on the card.

315. Women loved 'em, the guys wanted to be 'em.

316. I mean, The Rockers were truly on their way.

317. Oh!

318. And we've backed down from nobody,

319. and the future has a lot to hold for The Rockers.

320. We are the masters of motion,

321. and whether it be for business or pleasure,

322. we have all the right moves.

323. The girls were chasing the guys around.

324. The 80s, and the 90s were, you know,

325. models and stuff.

326. - Strippers.

327. And we always partied together.

328. I mean, we used to have, like, you know,

329. 20, 30 girls at the pool.

330. I was getting tired and I says,

331. "Marty, I'm gonna lay down for a minute."

332. So I lay down and close my eyes,

333. and all of a sudden he had this pistol in his hand

334. and he just starts goin' bam, bam, bam, bam!

335. Shooting at, you know, everything.

336. I jumped up, I thought he had shot me.

337. He was trying to wake me up.

338. He didn't want me to go to sleep.

339. Jesus Christ. I had a heart attack, man.

340. When he had done that, he'd shot his car,

341. put a hole in his bedroom through the glass window,

342. and he got mad at me.

343. "If you wouldn't have laid down

344. I wouldn't have had to done that."

345. Yeah, fuck, Marty was crazy man.

346. We had so much fun.

347. When Marty and Shawn were really hitting it

348. out of the park, they'd go to a hotel.

349. They'd take a girl to the room and there were

350. girls lined up in the hallway,

351. waiting to go and take their turn at bat.

352. And like we were on the road 300 days a year.

353. We partied 290 of them. You know?

354. And Shawn and I, we were like brothers.

355. We would room together, we would rent a car together,

356. we'd go eat together, we'd go to the gym together.

357. You know, a lot of the women we did together.

358. And um, at one point,

359. you couldn't have been a closer,

360. you know, couple guys in wrestling.

361. As their popularity soars, Marty and Shawn

362. reach the pinnacle of their careers as a tag team.

363. But on December 11, 1990,

364. a tragic incident threatens to derail their momentum.

365. Chuck Austin is his name.

366. And I'd show him there was this move I do

367. for the finishing, "The Rocker Dropper."

368. Look at this, here we go!

369. You know, I was going, stepping through it,

370. he goes, "Oh I know what you're talking about.

371. Yeah I know, yeah, I've done it before."

372. I know exactly what went wrong.

373. Right before, when I was going off the second rope and

374. come down, grab him by the back of the head and

375. drag him down like a bulldog sort of, type of thing.

376. He took that decent, and the crowd popped,

377. it looked good.

378. So when I got him up for The Rocker Dropper

379. he was all excited, wanted to make sure

380. he got that same pop.

381. But see he stood all the way up and dove down.

382. He dove straight into the ring

383. and broke his neck.

384. I go to roll him over.

385. I stepped over him and saw his legs crossed.

386. And I saw him, he was laying there,

387. and pick his arms up and like, wiggle his fingers,

388. and I tagged Shawn, I said,

389. "I think he might be hurt, man."

390. And Shawn did great.

391. He dove off the top, he did not touch him at all.

392. We covered for the pin.

393. And he was still laying there,

394. he hasn't moved, and so we get out the ring.

395. So, the time I got in the back everybody's

396. gathered around the monitors looking.

397. He has not moved, his legs are still crossed.

398. He's not moved from the spot.

399. They took him to the back and got him on a helicopter,

400. and I'm watching all that.

401. I'm just thinking, "Man, I caused that."

402. And Chuck says he expressed reservations about having to

403. fall to the mat without using his hands to break his fall.

404. I questioned him several times,

405. and he told me he was a professional and

406. he would protect me.

407. When I hit the mat I knew my neck was broken.

408. I find out six months later they're suing us

409. for, um, 10 million.

410. And the jury, they know what they saw on the TV, you know,

411. 'cause they had the TV monitor and they showed them.

412. They reacted on that, I did too, oh God.

413. If they don't see it done right it looks sickening to see.

414. Yeah. Dean come in, they told the jury,

415. "Now you're gonna see the move."

416. Brought the mat in, did 'The Rocker Dropper' there.

417. They jury just sat there like...

418. just looking.

419. But it was just no reaction, nothing.

420. And for wrestlers that's the worst thing.

421. You either want a, "Yay!" Or, "Boo!"

422. You don't want just nothing.

423. It was seven days worth of trial.

424. When we're done, they got the judgement,

425. and it was probably 20 minutes.

426. I mean they come down and say, "We're ready."

427. You know, it's hard to get two people to agree.

428. Get twelve people, and you're ready in 20 minutes.

429. After a very brief deliberation,

430. the jury returns with a verdict.

431. "We find the WWE 90% negligent.

432. We find Chuck Austin 5%, Marty Jannetty 5% negligent.

433. We find for Chuck Austin $24 million."

434. I jumped up, I was gonna say, "They were suing for 10!"

435. You know, my lawyer said, "Sit down, sit down!

436. We'll appeal." We appealed.

437. They called me and said, "They're willing to make a

438. settlement for $10 million."

439. "You mean I gotta pay 5% on that?"

440. I think they had said they would just take it

441. out of my royalty cheques.

442. I just didn't get as much pay as

443. I was supposed to get for a while.

444. The judge dismisses Shawn and says, "You're out of it.

445. There's not- no evidence against you."

446. That's the luck of Shawn.

447. I've said this a million times and

448. everybody that knows him will agree.

449. He can step in shit and come out smelling like a rose.

450. I'm not a Shawn fan at all, not even this much.

451. He was... he was egotistical,

452. he was um, you know,

453. "The Heartbreak Kid" kind of attitude.

454. Well that's his real attitude, that wasn't a show.

455. He was always a little cocky and arrogant, but you know,

456. that's my brother, he was good to me.

457. Then he started getting edgy towards me.

458. He would get aggravated when Marty'd overdo something.

459. But on Shawn's behalf,

460. he didn't have quite as bad of a...

461. quite as bad of a habit as Marty did.

462. I couldn't list the number of drugs Marty's probably done.

463. I know cocaine, crack, Somas, Halcions.

464. I saw him take a lot of Halcion-

465. a heavy duty tranquilizer.

466. And he was laying on the floor

467. with the pills spilled everywhere.

468. I had to call Shawn, and tell Shawn,

469. "What do I do? Do I call an ambulance?

470. Do I call a cop? What do I do?"

471. And he's like, "Don't call nobody!"

472. Him and Jimmy Snuka, um,

473. they just bust through the door and

474. grabbed him and

475. got him in the shower and stuff,

476. and I cleaned the room, got the pills, and, you know.

477. I just was so, I was just somewhere else, you know?

478. I just, "Oh my God." You know?

479. He almost died.

480. I think maybe it was that Shawn thought that Marty was

481. gonna screw up really bad because some of the shit

482. that he did was, you know, crazy.

483. Like most partners do, 'cause I'm in a tag team,

484. Marty and Shawn started butting heads a little bit,

485. and it escalated to where they actually had

486. a physical fight in a hotel.

487. Marty came in drunk,

488. bumping all over, cussing Shawn.

489. And then here comes Shawn, and runs across the room,

490. hits Marty, knocks him out a window.

491. Luckily we were down low and he hit the bushes,

492. and crawled back through the window,

493. got up in Shawn's face and says,

494. "Think you can do it again?"

495. Marty gets up and walks out the door,

496. Shawn walks out behind him.

497. Next thing you know

498. I look out there and Marty's got Shawn

499. on the ground, he's got his knees on his arms,

500. and he's choking him.

501. And he's already purple.

502. Marty said he just remembers looking down and seeing

503. his jeans were all bloody and it wasn't his blood.

504. It should have never happened but it did and, you know,

505. Shawn had to miss a few days on the road from it.

506. And uh, I think that was the catalyst to the end of

507. their partnership, because you know what?

508. If you get your ass kicked by your partner,

509. it's kind of hard to go back to normal.

510. We met with Vince, and Vince was like,

511. "I'm trying to find a way to split you guys up and

512. take you into singles." I said uh,

513. "Shawn and I need to talk about that first."

514. Shawn was like, "I'm okay with it!"

515. Right fucking there, I mean like, wow man.

516. I said, "Well where are we gonna go with this?"

517. And you know Vince was saying, "Well,

518. I see Shawn being a superstar and

519. I just don't quite see that in you right now, Marty."

520. Could that have crushed him or what?

521. Vince just saw something more in Shawn,

522. and I think that probably Shawn was in Vince's ear,

523. or ass, more than Marty was.

524. I hate to say, to use this expression but...

525. kKssing ass.

526. And I said, uh, "Well what will you do with me?"

527. 'Cause see, I figured, okay, you use me to get him over,

528. and then shit can me, I ain't gonna do it.

529. But if you're keeping me aboard, you know,

530. of course I'll do it.

531. there has been a great deal of

532. speculation as of late that uh,

533. maybe there's a little trouble there

534. between The Rockers. What do you know about it?

535. Any rumours? Have you heard anything?

536. They were planting the seeds in matchers prior

537. where Marty and Shawn had a little dust up.

538. And Shawn would always be the one that was initiating,

539. or getting angry, or more frustrated.

540. Of course the magazines were running with the story of

541. how we were jealous of each other,

542. who had prettier girls.

543. The rumours about them are true.

544. They don't get on at all.

545. They had the Barber Shop, which was Brutus "The Barber"

546. Beefcake's kind of like, talk show.

547. Let's welcome them right now, they're The Rockers!

548. And uh, that was the pinnacle of the turn.

549. You've been having some problems,

550. but I want to get you out here on the Barber Shop

551. so we can talk about this thing and get it all

552. straightened once and for all.

553. Before that day I had no idea

554. that that was gonna happen.

555. I don't want to put the blame back and forth

556. just like you said. I'll take the blame.

557. I'm sorry.

558. I want this thing to work with The Rockers.

559. And if you want to go on your own then walk off and leave.

560. If you want to stick together and make this thing work,

561. when I turn around we're gonna shake hands,

562. and we're gonna go on a rock and roll

563. like The Rockers can do.

564. He waits a second, listens to the crowd saying,

565. you know, "Stay together, stay together!"

566. Then he spins me around...

567. We shake hands.

568. Ladies and gentlemen, The Rockers!

569. - Told ya! - Glad to see that.

570. Told ya.

571. You know, and the crowd goes crazy.

572. I look that way and he turns, wham!

573. Oh!

574. Oh I knew he was gonna do that.

575. I just knew he was gonna do that.

576. And he kicked me so hard I didn't even feel the glass.

577. No!

578. Oh my God!

579. Right through the glass window of the Barber Shop!

580. The fans didn't want the team to break up,

581. no doubt. Nobody saw it coming.

582. That's, you know, it really made it the moment.

583. It, in a way it really broke my heart.

584. Cowardism!

585. Oh he's hurt.

586. I think we seemed like beast friends,

587. you know, to the people.

588. You know, so it really kind of broke their heart for us

589. to split, but then to split that way.

590. What a despicable act that was.

591. It was a career defining moment for both of them,

592. but in really-

593. I hate to say it, in two different ways.

594. For Shawn it was, you know,

595. a launching pad, and he took it.

596. There's a problem with you, Shawn!

597. - I don't think so. - The Rockers are history.

598. Oh and Marty, if he'd have,

599. he could have just stayed out of his own way,

600. it could've had the same ascension as what, uh,

601. Shawn did.

602. And I think that's where you could see the two,

603. you know, go different paths.

604. Following a tumultuous relationship soured by

605. excessive partying and physical fights,

606. The Rockers finally split,

607. leaving Shawn and Marty to pursue their

608. separate journeys as singles wrestlers.

609. You know he was a little upset,

610. you know, and then he's going,

611. "What's supposed to happen to me?" And I said,

612. "Well, what's gonna happen with both of us?"

613. We're both gonna then get judged on

614. wherever our careers take us.

615. And if you get over, they're gonna use you.

616. Plain and simple.

617. Things definitely had changed.

618. It's almost like they weren't a tag team at all.

619. It got a little ugly.

620. I think Marty resented Shawn at that point,

621. and I think Shawn was trying to distance himself

622. from Marty, because he was at, you know,

623. making his way up the ladder.

624. And so he was trying to get

625. as far away from him as he could.

626. Marty lives for the moment.

627. He just makes really bad decisions.

628. One of the girls I was seeing down in Tampa,

629. we went to a club.

630. And she was a dancer, stripper, dancer, whatever.

631. Exotic dancer, there we go.

632. There was policemen on the premises, pats me down,

633. and he pulls out a little baggie of cocaine.

634. We got arrested, and uh,

635. I did six months house arrest for that.

636. He's got multiple stories of getting kicked out of

637. multiple countries, because he got

638. arrested for doing something.

639. Bammer is just waiting to get his ass home.

640. It was in India, it was a five-star hotel.

641. Marty goes up to a cop.

642. Asks if he can ride his motorcycle.

643. I'm sure the cop is thinking

644. he's gonna drive down the street.

645. Marty goes up the stairs of this hotel.

646. For some reason the doorman opens the door,

647. and there's all these people around the fountain,

648. and then he goes straight inside the lobby.

649. And then wipes out and

650. knocks one of the dudes into the fountain.

651. It was just like, did he really do that?

652. I mean...

653. You know he's been in trouble now with the law.

654. They booted him out for a minute.

655. He and the Iron Sheikh, I think he's ahead by one,

656. of the number of times that a person's been fired,

657. and brought back, and fired again, and brought back.

658. - Marty Jannetty!

659. That's Marty Jannetty!

660. And then they did the whole New Rockers thing,

661. which Marty feels Shawn actually was the one

662. who suggested it to kind of sabotage,

663. and make people not think of the original Rockers.

664. Here we go! The New Rockers!

665. The problem was I don't think Marty was

666. 100% invested in it, and I don't blame him.

667. It kind of took a swing at what he and Shawn

668. had accomplished and what they had done.

669. They'll make you think they're really planning to do

670. something with you, but they're really,

671. you're just a filler for the card.

672. And that's when Marty realized it was time to go.

673. He went to WCW and it looked like

674. they were really gonna get behind him.

675. They were gonna try to do something major with him,

676. but Marty kind of got in his own way again.

677. In WCW he was in trouble with the law.

678. You know, he had gotten several DUIs.

679. One led eventually to him

680. losing his license for ten years.

681. The contract ran out and then that was it.

682. He just kind of floundered after that.

683. It devastated him.

684. To the point where he had posters of Shawn

685. on his wall, with darts,

686. and he would just try to hit him in

687. the most perfect spots.

688. By the late 1990s,

689. Marty struggles to compete on the indie circuit,

690. and eventually vanishes from the public eye.

691. Following a string of DUI charges, jail stints,

692. and substance abuse issues, Marty spirals for the next

693. five years before finally hitting rock bottom.

694. The first time I'd ever considered ending,

695. you know, life, was like, "Fuck it, I've had enough."

696. What I was gonna do was buy the biggest pile of cocaine

697. and just do it until my heart bust.

698. So that was my conversation with

699. the higher power, was,

700. "If you don't want me doing this,

701. you need to let me know.

702. And you know I'm pretty stupid,

703. so make it obvious."

704. You know, you like, you were given a sign,

705. "You gotta make it obvious for my dumb ass."

706. And the phone rings. I look down,

707. didn't recognize the number,

708. and that call that came in was Shawn calling me.

709. And he was inviting me to, it's called AIM.

710. It's Athletes International Ministry,

711. he wanted me to go to that in Phoenix, Arizona.

712. And he goes, "I'll take care of everything, don't worry

713. about that, but I would like you to be my guest."

714. You know before he made that call to me we ain't talked

715. in person, on the phone, in seven, eight years?

716. And that's when it hit me like,

717. "Holy shit."

718. I mean, you asked for a sign.

719. And then I did go out to Arizona and then, you know,

720. Shawn ended up, you know, doing the baptize thing

721. where they dunk you in the water.

722. Shawn ended up being the one to dunk me in the water.

723. And we did all that and for like three weeks

724. I lived the most pure life.

725. Now that all that has happened,

726. I get a phone call from WWE.

727. You know, they wanna do a Rocker reunion.

728. So, of course, you know?

729. Marty Jannetty and Shawn Michaels together again.

730. So we're at the curtain now and it's Rocker reunion and

731. I've been off TV for so many years.

732. Now I start getting nervous, and Shawn picked up on it,

733. and he goes, "What's wrong?" I said,

734. "Man, what if they don't remember me?"

735. And he goes, "Are you kidding me?"

736. He goes, "We were The Rockers,

737. nobody's gonna forget us."

738. As he said that the music hit.

739. It's The Rockers reunion!

740. And the fans are on their feet here in Atlanta!

741. And I go out there and they pop.

742. And I was like, "Wow!"

743. The amazing thing with Shawn and I was

744. how we were so in tune with each other.

745. Like, we became one when we tagged together.

746. - Tandem offense. - Look at this!

747. Even the way we bounced over the rope and went down

748. would be, our feet would hit the floor at the same time.

749. Everything was in unison. As a one.

750. They haven't missed a beat, they haven't lost a step!

751. The next day that's when they told me,

752. "Marty, hell of a match you had last night,

753. they want to give you a contract.

754. The way we're gonna use you, you'll make over a million."

755. Couldn't, couldn't ask for a better,

756. you know, comeback.

757. To end up in jail a week later.

758. After a successful Rockers reunion,

759. the WWF plans to continue featuring Marty on

760. a regular basis.

761. But trouble with the law once again prevents him

762. from capitalizing on the opportunity.

763. My wifey, um, we got to the apartment,

764. and got into a real big fight and

765. the neighbour called the police.

766. And, um, the police show up, they were like,

767. "Oh he's on probation go get him."

768. So I'm in jail now.

769. And I had just saw him and that stripper girl

770. a week before and I warned him about her,

771. and then a week later they got in a big fight and

772. he got arrested, which eventually had him

773. in the house arrest, and he lost his job.

774. And he had just gotten that last,

775. that was his last shot.

776. But guess what's the common denominator?

777. Hanging out with strippers that do drugs and

778. things like that, that's a lot of fun, I like that too.

779. But don't be surprised if it bites you in the ass.

780. Vince, he's like, "Gosh I love Marty,

781. I love him. Great guy, but he's got the biggest

782. black cloud over his head."

783. You know, I mean that's, and it's true.

784. When Vince recognizes that, you know,

785. and he's one of the smartest people I've ever met.

786. He does have a black cloud that follows him around, but,

787. he's the one that's, you know, putting it up there.

788. You know what I mean?

789. And keeping it on a leash to follow him, you know.

790. It doesn't have to be that way.

791. Hold on, time out.

792. It's so swollen I can't get the pants' leg up.

793. Sometimes when that crap's acting up

794. then I'll get like lightheaded.

795. So I was just looking at you all I'm like,

796. "Oh I'm gonna faint now, oh shit."

797. I do.

798. I do worry about him 'cause he's alone,

799. even though he says he has a lot of

800. telephone girlfriends and whatnot.

801. You know, in the past,

802. in the last years I would see him and

803. he'd be still trying to get in the,

804. getting in the ring, trying to wrestle,

805. and his ankle was horrible.

806. It was ridiculous, like I don't even know

807. how he got around,

808. how he was able to walk or anything.

809. His audience now is, instead of being out

810. around the ring, is, yeah...

811. Is the internet. It's Facebook.

812. I think that Facebook makes him feel like

813. he's not housebound.

814. Um, which for the most part he is with his injury.

815. So he can reach out and touch people.

816. They can, you know, respond to him,

817. he can get reaction from people.

818. I think his life feeds off of that,

819. because of the way we grew up.

820. We grew up wanting that every night, right?

821. And then all of a sudden one day, you know,

822. you see that there's no more of that.

823. Social media is right there.

824. He sits around and he's trying to think,

825. "Okay, what can I think of funny for the book?"

826. And he sits around and tries to come up with a funny

827. story, and those are the ones you know are bullshit.

828. No, I didn't do the post about the daughter thing.

829. That was a complete hack.

830. I didn't even see it to know to defend it or anything.

831. 'Cause I was hearing all these things like,

832. "You wanted to have sex with your daughter?"

833. I'm like what the hell are you talking about?

834. I mean, she didn't deserve any of that.

835. I mean, neither did I,

836. but I mean, she certainly didn't.

837. I mean, I'm the whacko on the internet,

838. and that's another reason, you know anything wacky

839. like that is believable because, "Well Marty..."

840. There are lots of things that I see Marty post on Facebook,

841. and I'm like, "What are you doing?"

842. And there was a point where there were

843. a lot of "holy shit" moments.

844. So Marty Jannetty is trending on Twitter, uh,

845. because he says that he was 13 years old.

846. Someone grabbed him,

847. dragged him to the back of a bowling alley,

848. and then here is a quote from Marty Jannetty on

849. the Facebook post, he said,

850. "That was the very first time I made a man disappear."

851. The Columbus, Georgia police department told TMZ,

852. "The first step we'll be seeing if we have any

853. missing persons or unidentified remains cases

854. that match the limited information in the post."

855. I mean, if something happened,

856. I mean, it is not out of the realm of possibility that

857. they could solve this crime.

858. When my friends in Germany are sending me the

859. newspapers, you know, headlines says

860. "Mauler Marty Kills Man." I mean what the fuck?

861. I mean, what happened to the rapist?

862. You're more concerned that a kid was trying to

863. save his self, and ended up accidentally,

864. it's called accidental death for a reason.

865. There was a big story about your claim that

866. you made a man disappear after an attempted rape

867. on your person as a teenager.

868. Did you realize how public this was gonna get,

869. with like police involvement?

870. Nah, hell no.

871. The police showed up on his doorstep.

872. I mean this thing went all the way, they investigated.

873. I had to deal with police.

874. I couldn't even, I had to get the,

875. I was scared to go to the airport.

876. That's the only reason I had to tell that it was a

877. storyline you know, so they would leave me alone.

878. Hypothetical.

879. In a pretend world... Yeah.

880. Okay... Okay.

881. So this is a bowling alley,

882. it used to be called Victory Lane.

883. When I was 14 I worked here.

884. The dude that worked the front desk,

885. but he also was somebody to buy weed from.

886. When I went to buy the weed from the guy,

887. went out in the parking lot and sat in the car.

888. As he gave me the bag, he reached over and

889. he put his hand on my crotch and said, "What's this?"

890. And I smacked his hand, I said, "Nah, not me."

891. And he got a little aggressive off of that.

892. And he chased, and grabbed, and got me to the back.

893. A big boy, man, he got me down and got on top.

894. And uh, you know, he was

895. trying to get to my pants,

896. unbutton, you know, take my pants down.

897. And I've got a 200 pound weight on me,

898. so this is as far as I can go, and it's right there.

899. And it was about this size.

900. Maybe a touch bigger, maybe.

901. But it was like, "Get off me!" You know?

902. I'm just trying to get him off me.

903. And evidently it caught him in the wrong place.

904. In the temple that can, that can, that can...

905. end your life.

906. You know I'm thinking, don't know what to do!

907. I mean, do I tell the police?

908. And I thought, go get my family member.

909. We both agreed you can't call the police.

910. You know, we thought that would be the wrong move.

911. On the other side of the trees, the far back trees,

912. that's Chattahoochee River.

913. So, you know,

914. we gotta get him to the river.

915. This is all hypothetical, remember,

916. that Columbus Police Department.

917. It was a storyline for wrestling.

918. With what happened in the car, with the...

919. with the grab, I'll give that.

920. That's truth.

921. If you're um, gonna write a storyline,

922. for wrestling, but you take something

923. that had happened, and you magnify it.

924. I mean, I see now that that was too much of a storyline.

925. They did a missing persons, they didn't find nobody.

926. So I mean, that should be the end of it.

927. No body no crime, for Marty.

928. I love Marty dearly, and I want,

929. I just want him to be happy.

930. I fear that he's gonna be alone,

931. because this becomes your life, you know,

932. and now what do you do?

933. When you gotta keep going on living,

934. but your life died.

935. Marty, we love you.

936. Keep your hands off my wife.

937. The future is bright, Marty.

938. Give it a chance.

939. There are people that love you out there.

940. I'm one of them and I, I had thought about

941. maybe flashing you, Marty.

942. - But I'm mic'd up, so...

943. You're missing out.

944. There's a thing in the wrestling business about,

945. you know, "Oh, I don't want to be the Marty Jannetty

946. of the team." Let me tell you something,

947. you'd be lucky if you were.

948. Because there would certainly not be a Shawn Michaels

949. at the level that Shawn Michaels was

950. if it was not for Marty Jannetty.

951. I love him to death.

952. I mean, there was 7 years of undeniably the best

953. relationship two people could have, and then,

954. you know, from ever since the phone call

955. he's been great again, so...

956. Yeah, I love him to death, you know.

957. - He and I were together. - Right.

958. 24 hours a day for 7 years.

959. You know, I mean, for all that time for us to get in

960. maybe one, one fight, is not bad at all.

961. Can't hold something, from, that's in your

962. rearview mirror out in front of the street,

963. you know, in front of you.

964. That's back there.

965. You know in the real side of it,

966. I didn't drag him to the river.

967. One of my buddies,

968. we drug him over to the woods and

969. poured gas on him and burned him up.

970. And maybe I even heard that when, if they burned,

971. they don't burn as much as you think they would and

972. there's a lot of bones that you gotta bury them.

973. That is the story that he told me, yes.

974. When we were partners.

975. Yeah, yeah.

976. This is absolutely true.

977. He told me a long time ago that did happen, yes.

978. 'Cause I can look at him in the face and I can listen to

979. the story and tell when he's telling the truth and

980. when he's not, you know.

981. You got as much as you can get.

982. Yeah.

983. That's as much as I can give you.

984. Hypothetically or not there it is.

985. Sometimes you gotta look through the smoke.

986. Smoke in mirrors does a lot.